Remy claims Moto2 title, Bagnaia wins MotoGP finale

Heading into the final race of the year, Pecco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) had a score to settle with the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. It’s a track he’s never been able to gel with and when he ended the weekend’s first practice session in the gravel, it wasn’t looking good for the young Italian who was determined to farewell his mentor Valentino Rossi with a good result.

But as he so often does, he found his groove, qualified on the front row and led home a Ducati 1-2-3 for the first time ever, and became the first Ducati rider since Casey Stoner to score a victory at the Spanish circuit.

He didn’t have it all of his own way, though. Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati), who had Rookie of the Year honours still to fight for, snatched pole position to head an all-Ducati front row ahead of Bagnaia and Lenovo Ducati teammate Jack Miller.

It was Martin who got off the line the best and who led the opening lap before Miller drafted past into the first corner to start the second with Bagnaia third. Miller’s strategy, however, was to conserve his rear tyre for the final stages of the race and by lap five, had found himself down in sixth place having been passed by the Factory Suzuki duo of Alex Rins and Joan Mir, as well as newly crowned world champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Yamaha).

The top four were beginning to pull a gap back to Quartararo and the Suzukis looked menacing through the tight and twisty circuit. Rossi, who had qualified 10th after earning a spot directly into Q2 the day before, was lapping just as quickly as the leading quartet in a remarkable show of talent and determination. And just as it looked as if Rins might make a move on Bagnaia for second place, he lost the front and crashed, notching up his fifth DNF of what has been a season to forget for the Spaniard.

All of a sudden Miller could sense a podium. He dug deep and posted the fastest lap of the race as Bagnaia drafted past the rookie to take the lead with 12 laps to go and put his head down to force a gap. Martin – who later revealed he’d been up all night vomiting and hadn’t eaten prior to the race – also got his head down and gave chase, reducing a gap of half a second down to just over two tenths with eight laps to go.

Further back, Miller took Mir for third, and hung on to the line to score a record first all-Ducati lockout of the podium. Rookie Enea Bastianini’s great ride from 18th on the grid through to 10th wasn’t enough against Martin’s fourth podium of the season to claim Rookie of the Year honours, but Ducati added the Teams Championship to the Constructors title it clinch two weeks prior.

And in front of an adoring crowd, Valentino Rossi finished his last-ever MotoGP race in a credible 10th place, crossing the line 13 seconds behind Bagnaia and just eight seconds behind Factory Yamaha’s world champ Fabio Quartararo, who finished fifth behind Mir.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) was sixth ahead of Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder in seventh, with Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Gresini) in ninth ahead of Rossi. It was Tech 3 KTM teammates Iker Lecuono and Danilo Petrucci’s final MotoGP race, too, the pair finished 16th and 18th respectively as they head off to WorldSBK and Dakar ventures for 2022.

Remy Gardner (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was crowned the 2021 Moto2 World Champion after a shortened but intense 16-lap race. With a points buffer heading into the final round good enough to see him crowned world champ if he finished 13th place or higher, assuming title rival and teammate Raul Fernandez took the win, it shouldn’t have been as nail biting as it was.

But as Fernandez eased through on Fabio Di Giannantonio to take the lead with just four laps to go, Remy was down in 10th and coming under increasing pressure from Tetsua Nagashima (Italtrans Racing) and Tom Luthi (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team). But as a deserving world champion in waiting would do, he held his nerve and upped his pace to hold the Japanese man off and cross the line in 10th to become Australia’s first grand prix world champion in 10 years, its second in the intermediate category since Kel Carruthers and just the second son of a former world champ win a world title.

“I’m lost for words, honestly,” he said in Parc Ferme. “So many years of suffering, so many points in my career where I just thought I’m not good enough, I’m not going to make it and I don’t know how, but I turned it all around and made it happen and it’s a dream come true.

“I just want to say thanks to the people that believed in me back in the days when not many people did. I still can’t believe it’s happened, I’m just so grateful to be here.”

Up front, Fernandez held up his end of the bargain and took his eighth victory of the season – one more than Marc Marquez managed in his rookie Moto2 season – ahead of Di Giannantonio (Federal Oils Gresini) and Augusto Fernandez (Elf Marc VDS Racing).

The Moto3 category kicked off a day of high-drama racing as newly crowned world champ Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and runner-up Dennis Foggia’s (Leopard Honda) rivalry went all the way to final lap of the last race of the season.

With Acosta on pole and Foggia starting from seventh, the Leopard Honda rider had got himself into the lead in the final stages of the race, determined to make amends for the way his title charge ended last time out. But as the pair swapped the lead a couple of times, Acosta ran wide into the second corner of the last lap before cutting back in and making contact with the Italian with landed the 2021 world champ on the floor and out of the race.

Foggia’s teammate Xavier Artigas, who started from 17th on the grid, pounced on the opportunity and took the chequered flag for his maiden win of the season.

Sergio Garcia (Valresa GasGas Aspar) finished in second, just 0.043s behind Artigas. And it was Acosta’s Red Bull KTM Ajo teammate Jaume Masia, from all the way back in 23rd on the grid, who rounded out the podium.

Foggia stayed on, but the best he could muster was 13th by the end of the race. Aussie Joel Kelso (CIP Green Power), deputising in what will be his full-time team in next year’s Moto3 season, was one of eight riders to crash during the 23-lap race.